The Holocaust was an inconceivable historical event, which forever robbed Western culture of its innocence. As civilized human beings, we fail to understand how events of such horror could have taken place, and how an idea so inhumanly warped could have spread like wildfire through an entire continent, instigating the systematic annihilation of millions of Jews.
This free online course was produced jointly by Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem – the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. The course tracks the history of the Holocaust and has two parts. "The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World" is the first of the two courses and covers the following themes in its three weeks:
Week 1: From Hatred to Core Ideology
We will try to delve into Nazi ideology and the special place of Jews and Judaism in it. We will also discuss how the National Socialist Party converted the German Democracy of the Weimar Republic into a totalitarian regime within a short period of time, and its meaning for Jews and non-Jewish citizens.
Week 2: The World and the Jews in World War II
We will try to examine the broader contexts of the Holocaust and to place it, as part of World War 2. In this meeting we will also refer to the vital Jewish world to be found under various Nazi occupations and influences.
Week 3: The Isolation Abyss - the Perspective of the Individual
We will try to reveal different aspects of Jewish life in the face of the badge of shame, ghettos and segregation, as well as the formation of individual, societies’ and leader’s reactions in the face of a consistent policy of dispossession and discrimination.
Once you’ve completed this course, you can continue your learning with The Holocaust - An Introduction (II): The Final Solution
This online course is offered in an innovative, multi-level format, comprising:
* Comprehensive lectures by leading researchers from Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem.
* A wealth of voices and viewpoints presented by guest lecturers.
* Numerous documents, photos, testimonies and works of art from the time of the Holocaust.
* Novel learning experience: Crowd sourcing – involving the learners themselves in the act of collecting and shaping information, via unique, exciting online assignments.
REQUIREMENTS:
This course is designed for anyone with an interest in the Holocaust, including students, teachers, academics and policy-makers.

From the lesson

The World and the Jews in World War II

We will try to examine the broader contexts of the Holocaust and to position it as a part of a various global conflicts that took place during world war 2. In this context, we will focus in a number of unique realities that were formed and created in Occupied Poland and France using them to identify key practices of Nazi Germany, European companies and the Jews who lived among them. We’ll look at the different fates of Jews in various European countries before and during World War 2, through the lens of the enormous changes which the Jewish world underwent in modern times: emancipation, secularization, urbanization and emigration.

Meet the Instructors

Professor Havi Dreifuss, PhD

ProfessorHavi Dreifuss is a historian of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe; senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at TAU; heads the Center for Research of Holocaust History in Poland, Yad Vashem.

Dr Na'ama Bela Shik, PhD

Director, Educational Technology Department, The International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad VashemThe International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem

[MUSIC]

Welcome back.

Our analysis of Nazi conduct in the annexed parts of Poland allowed us to meet

and better understand some organizations and modes of action characteristic to

Nazi Germany in general and which had a special role in the planning and

implementation of anti-Jewish policies throughout Europe.

Now let's take another concrete example, this time from the West,

in order to present other important features of the Holocaust.

Focusing on the occupation of France will help us in

exposing the important triangle necessary for any understanding of the Holocaust.

German policies, local reactions, Jewish experiences.

As we have seen, France was occupied in mid 1940 and divided into two,

the free zone in the south of France, Regime de Vichy and

the occupied zone in the north of France under the direct German rule.

Yet, in both parts, France and Germany were very visible.

Though the Germans were setting the scene in general in the north and occupied zone,

some French civil authorities continued to act over German occupied parts and

no one in Vichy, France could have ignored the Nazi Germany's presence in

the state that had until very recently been a democratic republic and

a symbol of equal civil rights.

Actually, for the German occupying forces, France was a symbol for a few important,

yet somehow contradictory notions.

First, the occupation of France was a sweet revenge on the historical enemy

which humiliated Germany in the first World War.

France capitulation was signed in the same rail road car in which Germany

was forced to sign it's total surrender in the end of the first World War.

Look how joyful Hitler looks in those pictures, he had a good reason.

The battle in France, and in fact, the general attack on the west,

was imposed by Hitler on the Wehrmacht.

The rapid victory, and the few German casualties in this campaign

became a proof of Hitler's military genius.

Yet, occupied France, and especially Paris, had another meaning for

many Germans, this was the City of Lights,

not only a symbol of Western and European culture, but a beautiful place to visit.

Paris became a tourist destination for many German soldiers, and

German units were sent to Paris to relax and recover.

But those pictures, though exposing German Paris, don't reveal

how French citizens experienced the German occupation of their homeland.

Beyond the prevailing shortage of food and other resources,

the French could not be indifferent to the German occupation of their homeland.

The country who raised the banner of freedom, equality, brotherhood,

liberte, egalite, fraternite, fundamentally changed it's face.

Strong Rightist traditions that had been part of the French culture, but

that had been overshadowed by the liberal tradition, surfaced and gained support.

During the years of the war, the famous motto which had shaped the ideals

of democracy and freedom not only in France but in the whole world,

was converted to work, family, fatherland.

And the French authorities in Vichy, France, and in the occupied zone

worked hand by hand with the occupying forces in too many aspects.

How was this grasped at the time by non-Jewish French?

>> Between 1940 and 1942, the majority of the French population

did all it could to satisfy the demands of its German occupiers,

even at the cost of allowing Germans into their cultural domains.

The Germans were everywhere encouraging the French people with a vivid and